drinian

I've recently been lucky enough to buy a house with a fairly large, overgrown garden that has been tended for more than fifty years.

I think most of the plants in it are fairly common for the region (Kanagawa), but I don't know where to start on identifying them. In particular the first thing I need to know about are the weeds that are taking over...

What are some good resources, either online or in book form, to help identify them?

First off: I'm a permanent resident, I'm liable for gift tax. Coming from a country with effectively zero gift or inheritance tax for most people, I'm trying to wrap my head around how this will work.

I recently purchased an old house in Japan and will be making renovations to it this year that should qualify me for the 5 million yen gift tax exemption for a gift from my parents to help pay for the renovations.

At the same time, my parents might want to gift more than this amount towards renovation work. It might make sense for me to chose the settlement at time of inheritance system. My understanding based on [this NTA document](https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/sozoku/4504.

For the last couple of years, I have been slowly going through a giant bottle of Costco's Kirkland Signature ultra-concentrated free and clear laundry detergent. Unfortunately, it seems like they no longer stock it in Japan, nor do they stock things like All Free and Clear any longer.

In the past, I've also used Miyoshi's お肌のための洗濯用せっけん, but it doesn't necessarily clean as well as other detergents and it's much less concentrated.

Are there any good "free and clear" detergents sold in Japan, preferably in large enough sizes that I'm not constantly re-buying?

Although the motivations of individual voters are always hard to discern, we saw last night that a significant minority of Japanese voters are willing to vote for a party which explicitly and loudly discriminates against non-ethnically-Japanese people in Japan.

Are there advocacy groups or NPOs which speak for the non-ethnically-Japanese in Japan as a whole?

Which credit card (Mastercard, preferably) has the lowest overseas usage fees here?

Some searching suggests it may be Aeon.

Are there other cards with better point programs that might offset their higher fees?

I've been searching in English and what I believe to be the appropriate terms in Japanese, on Meetup, on Doorkeeper, Net-Menber, Jmty, this subreddit, DuckDuckGo, Google... I can't find anything, except possibly the Slate Star Codex people, and I would like to cast a wider net. Even dating apps like Pairs, unlike Western apps, avoid encouraging people to report their religion or lack thereof, as if views on the fundamental nature of the universe were unimportant in finding a life partner.

Surely there must be social groups for such people here in Tokyo.

This article from a Catholic website sums u

I have heard that there are legal changes in the works starting this year that will improve the energy efficiency of new homes and buildings, and also require that older buildings are upgraded when they are renovated.

As these changes could make a huge difference in livability when buying a house, I'd like to know more, but I haven't been able to find too many details in English.

Would it make sense to wait on buying or renovating a house until after the law has changed, on the assumption that high-efficiency houses will become cheaper once they become the norm?

What are the details of the change -- what are the timelines? And what, concretely, will become mandatory? For instance, will wi

I help out with a monthly English-language event that brings together interesting speakers, a curious audience, and a bar on Friday nights called Nerd Nite Tokyo.

Pre-pandemic, we would have 80+ attendees each month, and were very lucky to have an event space in central Tokyo that we could afford (we're all-volunteer and have no sponsors, at least not right now). We're having successful events right now with a smaller crowd in a smaller venue in Kawasaki, but still hope to find something that fits us better and is located in a place that may draw in a larger crowd.

Does anyone have recommendations or introductions for a space that can comfortably seat 80+ peo

Hi,

I recently purchased my first GPD device, a P2 Max 2022, and before I continue debugging it I wanted to check for advice. I'm using Lubuntu.

Some of the hardware works, some does not. This was surprising to me as I thought that Intel support was in the kernel for most of this.

Working

• I can boot as long as I pass nomodeset to the kernel; otherwise, it will either display corrupted graphics or no graphics at all.
• I seem to be getting accelerated graphics.
• USB works; I am using a USB-C hub with success.
• I haven't tried using Bluetooth, but a Bluetooth adapter shows up when I run rfkill.

Not working

• Wifi. I can see in dmesg where `iwlwifi

After some research, I decided that I was most interested in SMILE and went to a clinic which offers custom LASIK, SMILE, and ICL for a consultation.

The first doctor I spoke to indicated he would prefer ICL for my prescription, but was OK with me doing SMILE as well. I came back for my second pre-surgical evaluation and spoke to another doctor. She was much more emphatic that she believed ICL was a better choice for me.

However, both doctors said that my corneas are thick enough for SMILE and I have no problems with astigmatism. It seems that they simply believe ICL has a better success rate at my prescription. I've put the process on hold so that I can do more research.

I'm in a country

With coronavirus vaccination on the horizon, I am hoping to get corrective eye surgery done within a few months. Because of my extreme myopia, I suspect that Relex SMILE or ICL surgery will end up being better options than LASIK.

Does anyone have recommendations for clinics in Tokyo that offer both these procedures? It's important to me that they are comfortable working with someone who has limited Japanese ability.

And does anyone have referral discounts they can share?

So far Minami Aoyama Eye Clinic seems to be the one that both caters to English-speakers and has SMILE.

Thanks.

I've realized that I'm having trouble with aphids in my small container garden, and it's unlikely that any predators like ladybugs will find their way here naturally.

I've seen ladybugs for sale on Rakuten (Ten-Top brand) but they seem quite expensive at 6,000 yen and up.

I'm looking into neem oil as well, of course, but I'd prefer to avoid using pesticides if possible. Are there less expensive ways to buy them? Any chance I've just been missing that section at the home center?

I'm not sure that getting them out of a park is going to be an option for me.